Angry over the passage of a debt ceiling measure on Wednesday, a number of conservatives in the House have threatened to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy on the grounds that they do not believe the bill cuts spending nearly enough.

“The hard-fought deal pleased few, but lawmakers assessed it was better than the alternative — a devastating economic upheaval if Congress failed to act,” The Associated Press reported, adding that Republicans and Democrats complained about elements of the measure.

According to reports, some expenditure was capped, and the measure also included other Republican priorities. Extreme left-wing Democrats, meanwhile, were furious that President Joe Biden had agreed to any expenditure cuts and urged him to hold out longer.

The Associated Press added:

McCarthy asserted that his party was working to “give America hope” as he delivered a late-night speech praising the bill’s budget cuts, which he argued were necessary to curb Washington’s “runaway spending.” McCarthy stated that it is merely a “first step” in response to Republican complaints that the spending restrictions were insufficient.

Earlier, Biden expressed optimism that the agreement he negotiated with McCarthy to increase the nation’s borrowing limit would be approved by the Senate and prevent an economically disastrous default on the nation’s obligations. The president has left Washington for Colorado, where he will give the commencement address at the U.S. Air Force Academy on Thursday.

“God willing by the time I land, Congress will have acted, the House will have acted, and we’ll be one step closer,” he said.

Not quite; House voting began approximately 90 minutes after Biden’s arrival at the academy. The final vote tally for passage was 314-117, and the bill now moves to the Senate, where ratification is anticipated by the end of the week.

McCarthy’s tenure as Speaker may be in jeopardy, however.

“I think he should be concerned” about a motion to vacate the chair, Rep. Kin Buck told CNN’s Jim Sciutto on Wednesday.

“I’m not suggesting the votes are there to remove the speaker, but the speaker promised that we would operate at 2022 appropriations levels when he got the support to be the speaker. He’s now changed that to 2023 levels plus one percent,” Buck added, according to The Daily Caller.

“That’s a major change for a lot of people. And so after this vote — and he will win the vote tonight — but after this vote, we will have discussions about whether there should be a motion to vacate or not,” Buck added.

“It only requires five votes if the Democrats all vote for [Democratic leader Rep.] Hakeem Jeffries. It only requires five votes for Kevin McCarthy not to get elected. What I’m saying is we don’t have a majority of Republicans to vote for somebody else at this point in time,” Buck added.

More on this story via Conservative Brief:

According to The American Conservative, “Some representatives have gone so far as to float the idea of using the vacate motion to try and remove McCarthy as speaker if this deal manages to go through. GOP sources told TAC that if someone were to move forward with a motion to vacate the chair, there would likely be enough votes to reignite the fight over Speaker of the House.” CONTINUE READING…